Instagram Now Supports 60 Second Videos

Just after the recent announcement of Snapchat Chat 2.0, Instagram has officially announced the support for longer user-created videos. Now users will be able to post videos as long as 60 seconds which, compared to the previous 15-second duration, will feel like an eternity.

Currently only a small group of random users are provided with this capability. Instagram states that everyone will receive this functionality in the coming months.

It is available on both iOS and Android, but iPhone users will also get an extra perk with this update, as users will be able to take multiple files from their gallery and stitch them together in a rudimentary video editing sub-function.

According to Instagram, video engagement has been up 40 percent in the last six months, and that people are craving more and longer videos. Instagram, along with its parent company Facebook, has taken a dive into this space to provide the users with what they need. Advertisers were the first to see the increase as Instagram allowed them to create 60-second video ads.

Instagram added the video support nearly three years ago. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerburg, said then that they’re just starting with this product. At the time, you could upload 15-second clips and apply one of 13 filters to make your video stand out.

Since then, the company released improvements for the service, including more filters and a slow-motion capability. It has also added video view counts to posts, so instead of just seeing how many people liked your video, you’ll know how many actually watched it.

The 15 second videos were an effort to get people straight to the point so they could share their moments concisely. But increasing this length allows users to tell rich stories about their experiences and it also provides Facebook to strengthen its tools to take on YouTube as the leader of internet videos.